The Nabucco pipeline project has taken another step forward by ordering engineering work for two feeder lines from Turkey to Iraq and Georgia. However, a third planned feeder line from Turkey to Iran has been put on the back-burner due to political considerations, the consortium announced.
At a recent Steering Committee meeting in Ankara, Nabucco shareholders agreed to modify the feeder line concept, a press release says. Due to the current political situation, they decided to put on hold the third feeder line to the Turkish-Iran border.
There will be feeder lines to the Turkish-Georgian and Turkish-Iraqi borders. The planned route offers a wide range of supply sources for the Nabucco gas pipeline, which will receive gas from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iraq, the Nabucco consortium announced.
Indeed, recently Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a deal to ship 11 billion cubic metres of Azeri gas per year to Turkey. Shipments will start in 2017 and some of the gas may be pumped into Nabucco. Meanwhile, northern Iraq declared in Turkey that it stands ready to provide gas supplies "to make Nabucco work".
The consortium also announced that it would raise its capacity step-by-step, from 8-10bcm/y and reaching maximum capacity by 2018 after the construction of additional compressor stations (see 'Background').
In the meantime, public hearings have been taking place in Turkey within communities, followed by question-and-answer sessions regarding the local impact of the project. According to the consortium, such meetings have already taken place in the cities of Ankara, Eskişehir, Bursa, Balikesir, Tekirdağ and Kırklareli.
It was recently announced that Nabucco's main competitor, Gazprom-favoured South Stream, had tried to unsettle its rival by enlisting German utility RWE, which is already a Nabucco partner, as one of its members. Later, Gazprom denied having made such an invitation.